Rising to the Cat & Caboodle Challenge

Wide-Eyed Wonder Kitty © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt

5 x 7 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Stamford, Connecticut

This painting was my response to this week’s Daily Paintworks Cat and Caboodle Challenge submitted by Dreama Tolle Perry. Thanks to Dreama for providing a subject with such a sweet face!

Here are some of my work-in-progress photos:

First, the initial sketch in purple acrylic -- I think she has too much of a smile, but I’ll fix that later.

A glaze of  turquoise in the background area ...

... then, a yellow glaze over the cat ...

...and a red glaze over the cat, except for the eyes!

After the acrylic underpainting is completely dry, I start adding the oils, 

starting with the eyes and working my way outward.

Here I’ve started toning down her smile a bit:

Here I’ve started adding in the background, loosely, 

so the green underpainting shows through in places:

In the final painting you can see I did away with the yellow-gold circles 

in the sofa fabric. I thought they were too busy; 

they took too much attention away from this sweet kitty face.

And you can see also how I toned down her smile, 

giving her more of an air of concentration.